Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Rump Parliament

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In the midst of a budget/government shutdown battle in the US, the Senate Majority Leader made an interesting, if obscure to many, statement:

"Mr. Reid has insulted his Republican colleagues as 'anarchists' and 'rumps' and has called then the 'weird caucus.'"
---New York Times. 30 September 2013.

About Monday 29 October 1660

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"some strange and incomparable good clarett"

CLARET [Clairet, F. of Clarus, L. clear] a general Name for the red Wines of France.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Thursday 11 October 1660

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"to dinner, where he and I and my Will had a good udder to dinner"

To bake an Udder.
Lard a young Udder with large Lardons, seasoned with Pepper, Nutmeg, Cloves and Mace; boil it till it is tender, let it stand till it is cold; then wrap it up in a Veal-caul, but first season it with Salt, and the former Spices; lay some Slices of Veal in the Bottom of your Pye, season them; lay the Udder upon them; then Slices of Veal seasoned, and on them Slices of Lard and Butter; close up your Pye, bake it and liquor it with clarified Butter.
---The cooks and confectioners dictionary. J.Nott, 1723.

About Sessions House (Old Bailey)

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Here [Old Bailey, a narrow street running between Ludgate Hill and Newgate Street] is the "Old Bailey Sessions House," or "Central Criminal Court."

This Justice Hall (commonly called the Sessions House) is a fair and stately building, very commodious for that affair; having large galleries on both sides or ends, for the reception of spectators. The Court Room being advanced by stone steps from the ground, with rails and banisters inclosed from the yard before it. And the Bail Dock, which fronts the Court, where the prisoners are kept until brought to their trials, is also inclosed. Over the Court Room is a stately Dining Room, sustained by ten stone pillars; and over it a platform, leaded, with rails and banisters. There be fair lodging-rooms and other conveniences on either side of the Court. It standeth backwards, so that it hath no front towards the street, only the gateway leading into the yard before the House, which is spacious. It cost above L6000 the building. And in this place the Lord Mayor, Recorder, the Aldermen and Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex do sit, and keep his Majesty's Sessions of Oyer and Terminer.—Strype, B. iii. p. 281.

That most celebrated place,
Where angry Justice shows her awful face;
Where little villains must submit to fate,
That great ones may enjoy the world in state. ---Garth's Dispensary.

The building described by Strype was destroyed in the Gordon riots of 1780. That which Dance erected in its place has been added to and greatly altered, but the dining-room still exists, and there the Judges dine when the Court is over, a practice referred to, though inaccurately, in the well-known line:—

And wretches hang that Jurymen may dine.

---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Sir Orlando Bridgeman (Lord Keeper, 1667-1672)

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Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Knt. eldest son of the bishop, was, for his great proficiency in the law, made attorney of the court of wards, also attorney to the prince of Wales, (afterwards King Charles II.) and a person, of whom, my lord Clarendon, in his history, makes honourable mention, upon several occasions: and being greatly confided in by the royal martyr, was one of the commissioners deputed by him to treat with those of the parliament, at Uxbridge: and as long as the city of Chester held out for the king, he encouraged and supported the loyalists with several sums of money; and gave several sums to purchase tythes, where churches were not, as he thought, sufficiently endow'd; and large sums to other charitable uses, and redeeming poor captives from slavery. Upon the restoration of King Charles II. as a farther reward for his merit, he was made lord chief-baron of the exchequer; then lord chief-justice of the common-pleas; and lastly, lord-keeper of the great seal of England, and created a baronet.
---The English Baronetage. A. Collins, 1741

About Maj-Gen. Thomas Harrison

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And the question being asked, If he [Harrison] had any thing to say why judgment should not pass? he only said, That, since the court had refused to hear what was fit for him to speak in his defence, he had no more to say. Upon which Bridgman pronounced the sentence. And, that the inhumanity of these men may the better appear, I must not omit, that the executioner, in an ugly dress, with a halter in his hand, was placed near the Major-General, and continued there during the whole time of his trial. Which action I doubt whether it was ever equalled by the most barbarous nations. But having learned to contemn such baseness, after the sentence had been pronounced against him, he said aloud, as he was withdrawing from the court, that he had no reason to be ashamed of the cause in which he had been engaged. This sentence was so barbarously executed, that he was cut down alive, and saw his bowels thrown into the fire.
---Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, Esq. E. Ludlow, 1751

About Sir Hardress Waller

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Sir Hardress Waller, Knight, one of Charles the First's judges. His sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Rotherhithe (Redriffe)

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Redriff, a corruption of Rotherhithe. The immortal Gulliver was, as Swift tells us, long an inhabitant of Redriff.

Have I for this thy tedious absence borne,
And waked, and wished whole nights for thy return?
In five long years I took no second spouse,
What Redriff wife so long hath kept her vows?
--Swift, Mary Gulliver to Captain Lemuel Gulliver.

---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Sir William Doyly

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Sir William D'Oyly, son and heir of William, brother of Sir Henry, succeeded to the estate, and was stiled, Sir William the elder, and, as heir to Susan, his cousin, had Pond-hall, Topsfield, and Cossford, in Suffolk, Shottisham, Gostlings, and three manors in Warham, in Norfolk. He was knighted by King Charles I. 1642, for his gallant behaviour abroad, in the service of the great Gustavus Adolphus, after whose death, he remained in foreign parts, till he returned to take possession of the fortune of his family: he was a very accomplished gentleman, and much esteemed in his country, which he had the honour to represent in parliament, with Sir Horatio Townshend. He was among the most zealous in the convention parliament, for the restoration of the royal family, and sat afterwards in the house of commons, as member for the borough of Yarmouth, at their particular invitation. He was one of the commissioners appointed by the house of commons, out of their own members, to see the army disbanded, in 1661, and was chosen by the city of Norwich, with three other gentlemen of distinction, viz. Sir Horatio Townshend, Sir John Holland, and Sir Ralph Hare, to wait on the King, soon after his return, with the resignation of their charter, which his Majesty graciously restored to them: in the year 1663, he was created a Baronet, and [died] in 1677.
---The Baronetage of England. R. Johnson, 1771.

About Saturday 22 September 1660

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"there in the house of office vomited up all my breakfast,"

The DRAUGHT. a House of Office, Necessary, or Bog house.

An EASEMENT. a Privy, or House of Office

PRIVY. an House of Office.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Baily, 1675.

About Monday 17 September 1660

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POCKET. The small bag inserted into the cloathes.
---A Dictionary of the English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1768.

About Saturday 15 September 1660

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court dish; a dish furnished from a table with some part of all the meat that's on it.
---A French and English dictionary. R. Colgrave, 1673.

About Thursday 8 March 1659/60

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bespeak/bespoke is no longer part of American English

To BESPEAK.
1. To order, or entreat any thing before hand. Swift.
2. To make way by a previous apology. Dryden.
3. To forebode. Swift.
4. To speak to; to address. Dryden.
5. To betoken; to shew. Addison.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Sunday 9 September 1660

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Sir William Penn, 39, an Admiral and Commissioner of the Navy, is only 12 years older than Pepys, 27. He will be mentioned over 700 times in this diary and in practically every month. Sam has gained a mentor and a friend.

About Saturday 8 September 1660

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More positive than negative, I'd say.

CUNNING.
1. Skilful; knowing; learned.
2. Performed with skill; artful.
3. Artfully deceitful; trickish; subtle; crafty; subdolous.
4. Acted with subtilty.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Maurice Eugène de Savoie Soissons

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Eugene Maurice of Savoy, youngest son of Thomas of Savoy, by Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons, whose title he inherited. He married Olympia Mancini, one of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, more than suspected of poisoning practices (like the Brinvilliers). His youngest son was the celebrated General, Prince Eugene of Savoy.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Monday 3 September 1660

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The following source:

The Institution, Laws & Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Elias Ashmole, 1672.

states that in the 13th year of his reign, Henry VIII decreed "That every Knight of the Order, should wear loosely before his Breast the Image of St. George in a Gold chain, or otherwise in a Ribband, the same to be thence forward placed within the ennobled Garter; ... And thus the wearing the Medal or Jewel usually called the Lesser George to distinguish it from the other George worn at the Collar of the Order was first enjoined and hath since been constantly so used."

This source refers dozens of times to "the George" when discussing this "Medal or Jewel." Since Sandwich recently joined the Order of the Garter, surely the reading of the word as "George" is correct.

About Sunday 2 September 1660

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So Sam tells his wife he's working late but goes off to a party instead. Tom, is this upperclass or lowerclass behavior?